California farmworkers could have shorter workdays and expanded access to overtime by 2020 under legislation introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez.

The legislation would shorten a farmworker’s 10-hour workday in half-hour increments each year, until reaching eight hours in 2020. The standard 60-hour workweek would also be reduced to 40 hours per week for the first time.

The legislation, known as the “Phase-In Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act of 2016” or Assembly Bill 2757, aims to establish equitable overtime standards in a disproportionally demanding occupation.

“Every worker who touches our food in California — from the packing houses to the grocery store to the restaurant — earns overtime after eight hours of work, except the people who actually pick it,” Gonzalez, D-San Diego, said in a statement. “Few occupations are as physically demanding or exhausting as the backbreaking labor performed by farm workers, and it’s time to allow the same right to the overtime pay as anyone else in our food production chain.”

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 established minimum wage, record-keeping, child labor standards and overtime pay eligibility for private and government employees but excluded the country’s agricultural workers.

In 1941, the Legislature also exempted agricultural workers from state statutory overtime requirements.

Gov. Jerry Brown in 1976 signed legislation modifying these standards, which established the 10-hour workday and 60-hour week currently in place for the state’s farmworkers.

More than 90 percent of California farmworkers are Latino and more than 80 percent are immigrants, according to Gonzalez.

The legislation will go before a labor and employment committee in April.